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	id AA02529; Thu, 15 Jul 93 12:41:31 CDT
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 93 12:41:31 CDT
From: zink (Ken Zink)
Message-Id: <9307151741.AA02529@sessun>
To: lclstaff
Subject: Math Hooligans
Status: R

The following was forwarded to me. . . .


>Newsgroups: sci.astro
>
>The following column appeared in the Chicago Tribune /
>DuPage County edition Tuesday June 29 1993 page 2-1.
>
>Math Riots Prove Fun Incalculable /by/ Eric Zorn
>
>/begin italics/ News Item (June 23) -- Mathematicians
>worldwide were excited and pleased today by the
>announcement that Princeton University professor
>Andrew Wiles had finally proved Fermat's Last Theorem, a
>365-year-old problem said to be the most famous in the
>field. /end italics/
>
>Yes, admittedly, there was rioting and vandalism last
>week during the celebration. A few bookstores had
>windows smashed and shelves stripped, and vacant lots
>glowed with burning piles of old dissertations. But
>overall we can feel relief that it was nothing -- nothing
>-- compared to the outbreak of exuberant thuggery that
>occurred in 1984 after Louis DeBranges finally proved
>the Bieberbach Conjecture.
>
>"Math hooligans are the worst," said a Chicago Police
>Department spokesman. "But the city learned from the
>Bieberbach riots. We were ready for them this time."
>
>When word hit Wednesday that Fermat's Last Theorem had
>fallen, a massive show of force from law enforcement at
>universities all around the country headed off a repeat
>of the festive looting sprees that have become the
>traditional accompaniment to triumphant
>breakthroughs in higher mathematics.
>
>Mounted police throughout Hyde Park kept crowds of
>delirious wizards at the University of Chicago from
>tipping over cars on the midway as they first did in 1976
>when Wolfgang Haken and Kenneth Appel cracked the
>long-vexing Four-Color Problem. Incidents of
>textbook-throwing and citizens being pulled from their
>cars and humiliated with difficult story problems last
>week were described by the university's math department
>chairman Bob Zimmer as "isolated."
>
>Zimmer said, "Most of the celebrations were orderly and
>peaceful. But there will always be a few -- usually
>graduate students -- who use any excuse to cause trouble
>and steal. These are not true fans of Andrew Wiles."
>
>Wiles himself pleaded for calm even as he offered up the
>proof that there is no solution to the equation x^n + y^n =
>z^n when n is a whole number greater than two, as Pierre de
>Fermat first proposed in the 17th Century. "Party hard
>but party safe," he said, echoing the phrase he had
>repeated often in interviews with scholarly journals as
>he came closer and closer to completing his proof.
>
>Some authorities tried to blame the disorder on the
>provocative taunting of Japanese mathematician Yoichi
>Miyaoka. Miyaoka thought he had proved Fermat's Last
>Theorem in 1988, but his claims did not bear up under the
>scrutiny of professional referees, leading some to
>suspect that the fix was in. And ever since, as Wiles
>chipped away steadily at the Fermat problem, Miyaoka
>scoffed that there would be no reason to board up windows
>near universities any time soon; that God wanted Miyaoka
>to prove it.
>
>In a peculiar sidelight, Miyaoka recently took the
>trouble to secure a U.S. trademark on the equation "x^n +
>y^n = z^n " as well as the now-ubiquitous expression "Take
>that, Fermat!" Ironically, in defeat, he stands to make a
>good deal of money on cap and T-shirt sales.
>
>This was no walk-in-the-park proof for Wiles. He was
>dogged, in the early going, by sniping publicity that
>claimed he was seen puttering late one night doing set
>theory in a New Jersey library when he either should have
>been sleeping, critics said, or focusing on arithmetic
>algebraic geometry for the proving work ahead.
>
>"Set theory is my hobby, it helps me relax," was his angry
>explanation.  The next night, he channeled his fury and
>came up with five critical steps in his proof. Not a
>record, but close.
>
>There was talk that he thought he could do it all by
>himself, especially when he candidly referred to
>University of California mathematician Kenneth Ribet
>as part of his "supporting cast," when most people in the
>field knew that without Ribet's 1986 proof definitively
>linking the Taniyama Conjecture to Fermat's Last
>Theorem, Wiles would be just another frustrated guy in a
>tweed jacket teaching calculus to freshmen.
>
>His travails made the ultimate victory that much more
>explosive for math buffs. When the news arrived, many
>were already wired from caffeine consumed at daily
>colloquial teas, and the took to the streets en masse
>shouting, "Obvious! Yessss! It was obvious!"
>
>The law cannot hope to stop such enthusiasm, only to
>control it. Still, one has to wonder what the connection
>is between wanton pillaging and a mathematical proof, no
>matter how long-awaited and subtle.
>
>The Victory Over Fermat rally, held on a cloudless day in
>front of a crowd of 30,000 (police estimate: 150,000) was
>pleasantly peaceful.  Signs unfurled in the audience
>proclaimed Wiles the greatest mathematician of all
>time, though partisans of Euclid, Descartes, Newton,
>and C.F. Gauss and others argued the point vehemently.
>
>A warmup act, The Supertheorists, delighted the crowd
>with a ragged song, "It Was Never Less Than Probable, My
>Friend," which included such gloating, barbed verses as
>--- "I had a proof all ready / But then I did a choke-a / Made
>liberal assumptions / Hi! I'm Yoichi Miyaoka."
>
>In the speeches from the stage, there was talk of a
>dynasty, specifically that next year Wiles will crack
>the great unproven Riemann Hypothesis ("Rie-peat!
>Rie-peat!" the crowd cried), and that after the
>Prime-Pair Problem, the Goldbach Conjecture ("Minimum
>Goldbach," said one T-shirt) and so on.
>
>They couldn't just let him enjoy his proof. Not even for
>one day. Math people. Go figure 'em. --  
>--
>
>
>-- Stephen Saroff: saroff@msc.edu
>-- Minnesota SupercomputerCenter,Inc
>-- 1200 WashingtonAve S; Minneapolis,MN 55415
>-- 612/337 3423 Fax:612/337 3400
>